Overview#

Assignments are intended to strengthen your understanding of the material, and to develop your ability to implement, explore, and rigorously test computational models using primary sources and real datasets.

Be kind to yourself (and your brain)!#

Implementing models from scratch, and piecing research together directly from primary sources, is hard! It’s helpful to give yourself plenty of time, maintain a positive attitude, ask for help when you need it, and just keep pushing it forward one tiny step at a time. If you find yourself completely stuck, try doing some sort of mindless exercise (walks are great!), meditate, take a nap (or go to sleep), have a snack, or anything else that will give your mind a break. Then, when you’re feeling fresher, re-review your notes and see if you can push forward a tiny bit more.

When I am really stuck, my other often-used trick is to explain (usually to my wife, or even just talking out loud to myself!) what is so confusion, or why I’m stuck. The act of forcing yourself to talk through the nitty gritty details of how something “should” work vs. how it “does” work can sometimes be enough to uncover where the blocks are.